


No Such Thing As Fairy Tales

by SolarEclipse26



Category: Fairy Tail
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-18
Updated: 2020-05-04
Packaged: 2021-02-27 19:14:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 12,599
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22790809
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SolarEclipse26/pseuds/SolarEclipse26
Summary: The Continent of Ishtar. The untamed wilds of the continent hold many mysteries, for magic runs through the very earth itself, and is treasured across the seven kingdoms. Many would do anything to obtain it, including hunting the beings which hold such power within their very cores. Collectors and traders hide away their treasures for profit, power, and status, but many are since disappearing under violent circumstances. The causes are unknown but the reasons for this crisis will soon be made clear when the largest known hoard of magic - The Heartfilia Estate - is raided, looted, and destroyed in a single night. Do fairy tales of beasts and demons hunting down guilty kings and nobles hold some truth? 400 years of traditions and fools will crumble as a new era of Myths and Magic finally take back their rightful place in their homelands.this fic is unfortunately discontinued, thanks for reading it (and hopefully enjoyed it)
Kudos: 12





	1. Do You Know The Dragon's Tale?

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for taking an interest in my fic. This has been in the works for ages, and I finally sat down and decided to post it. Now or never I guess. Please, Please comment and let me know what you think. That will help me decide if I should keep posting. Anyways enyoy, and lemme know what you think.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter one my lads.

_Dear Mom,_

_Sorry if it's been a while. I haven’t really had time to sit down and write to you lately, nor have I really had anything to write to you about._

Lucy paused. She placed the tip of her pen to her lips in thought, then continued.

_Father is doing well. I heard that his hunters had found a rare item. I’m not sure what it was since they didn’t confirm anything, but dad was happy about it. He wouldn’t tell me anything either. He just asked me what I was doing in his study and told me to go back to my room as always._

Lucy's father was a collector. He hunted down and kept rare items. He called it a hobby, Lucy prefered obsession herself, seeing as he never did anything else. He never told Lucy anything about his collection or where he kept it, but she had heard rumours from her guards that it was the biggest collection in Fiore. Lucy was proud of her father, but she wished that he would pay more attention to his own daughter rather than his illustrious treasures. Lucy had often imagined finding the collection and wandering through it, seeing all the rare items that he kept someplace hidden on the vast Heartfilia grounds.

Sometimes, if Lucy was lucky, she'd sneak out of her room and walk through the gardens. On those nights she would sprawl on the grass and stare up at the stars, dreaming hopelessly of a day when she could reach them. Sometimes she would fall asleep to the sound of crickets and gentle winds that swept the grass, only to be scolded the next morning by her father for sneaking out of her room. On those rare nights Lucy would have the strangest dreams. Dreams of dancing constellations, unknown familiar faces, and voices speaking in ways she could never remember. She loved those nights. Nights that only came once in a blue moon when she was lonely. Though it seemed that she was always lonely.

She sighed and continued her letter.

_I wish you could be here. The house is so empty without you. I think dad misses you too; he's too thick to show it, but I know he does. Anyways, I'm doing well. I'm almost seventeen now and I can’t wait for the time when I’ll be able to get out of here and travel. When no one can stop me, not even dad. I’ll make tons of friends and maybe learn some magic. Dad won’t let me touch the stuff, but all that will change when I escape this place. I’ll sleep under the stars every night and not even worry about hiding from my guards. I’ll be free to do whatever I want. It’ll be just like all those fairy tales you used to read me, mom. Happily, ever after._

Pleased with her letter, Lucy let go of her pen, stretching her arms above her head and releasing a sigh as she stared out her window at the falling sun and the brilliant, warm sky as the clouds glowed radiant shades of red, orange, and pink.

"Sunset already?" She mused to herself. Getting up from her desk, she walked towards the windows that stretched to the ceiling and swung open the glass doors to her balcony. As she breathed the cooling summer air, she couldn’t help but think about the rare item her father’s hunters were bringing in. What exactly was it; a rare gemstone that glowed like the moon? Maybe an ancient carving from times long forgotten? Or perhaps something better? Lucy leaned against the railing and let her cheek rest against her arms. She'd never been outside the Heartfilia estate. She had wanted to see the world for the longest time. "Someday," she whispered, "someday soon. Just you wait world; you'll have to deal with Lucy Heartfilia soon."

The sun had dropped behind the mountains that marked the reach of her father’s land; the sky had turned a pale pink before fading to a deep blue. She turned around and walked back into her room, closing the glass doors behind her to get ready for bed. She quickly showered and brushed her teeth, then slipped into her silky, blue pyjamas with cherry blossom patterns and slithered into her queen-sized bed. As soon as her head hit the soft pillows, Lucy fell away to dreamland for adventures with her strange strangers who often accompanied her.

~~~~

Lucy sat bolt upright as her bedroom shook like an earthquake. Dust fell from the ceiling and explosions boomed from below her. Books fell from shelves and her lamp on her bedside crashed to the floor, shattering the light lacrima.

"What the hell?" Lucy bellowed. She flung the covers from her body and jumped from her bed startled as she ran for her door. "What’s going on?" She demanded through the door. When no one answered she pushed the heavy door open and saw that no one was guarding it.

She then realized that the guards were probably off dealing with the cause of the explosions. Without any hesitation she sprinted down the hallway towards the stairs that lead to the lower levels. What was going on? Were they under attack? Who would want to attack them? How did they find the Heartfilia estate in the first place? Were they after her father’s collection? Lucy nearly slipped as she turned a sharp corner but slid to a sudden stop when she saw the chaos.

Furniture and windows were shattered, and unconscious guards lay sprawled in every direction. Chains lay across the ground, it seemed as if they had been melted. Yelling and panic filled the air. Servants ran in every direction to escape the destruction and it seemed as if everything was on fire. The heat of the flames was like nothing Lucy had ever felt; it seemed as if the could melt her skin off if she got within a five-foot radius and standing in the middle of it all was a man unlike Lucy had ever seen before.

He was wearing a black vest rimmed with yellow that showed off his chest and abdomen. Loose white pants covered by black cloth held at his waist by a brown belt stopped at his knees and his sandal clad feet were spread in a wide stance. Small crimson horns grew from dishevelled pink locks on either side of his head, and his ears were pointed like an animals. Bright, scarlet scales covered his shoulders, forearms and knuckles. Flames encased his entire body and the same heat emanated from him that had emanated from the flames. Then she saw his face. His lips were pulled back into a beast like scowl that showed his large sharp canines, and his eyes; one look at his eyes and she felt like he could rip her apart with a look. The look in his eyes was enough to send an army of the best trained soldiers running for shelter. This was no man. This was a rampaging beast that stopped at nothing to tear its enemies the shreds. This was a monster.

The man gave a roar, one that shook the air and the earth. Lucy covered her ears to block out the sound tearing through her head, leaving her ears ringing. Lucy shook in the doorway she stood in, silently wishing that she had stayed in her room. Guards charged at the man, swords drawn and sharp, ready to cut through any threat.

"No!" her head snapped towards the voice that called through the chaos, "do not harm it! It is too valuable!" Lucy stood in shock at her father. Was this being the rare item that her father had found? Was this what her father collected? Was this what her father spent all his time doing? Hunting down magical beasts that she had heard roamed the earth like they were items to be possessed and locked in a cage to be gawked at?

The man, who didn’t seem to appreciate being called an it, leaped at her father inhumanly fast, fist encased in fire, and landed a punch to his stomach ramming him into the wall behind him. The guards cried out in anger, too slow to do anything to stop the man. Lucy unintentionally cried out to her father, drawing the attention of some guards and, unfortunately, the man who was the cause of the damage. His head snapped towards her and their eyes connected.  
Lucy cowered under his gaze. His intense dark eyes drilled through her light brown ones. She saw his nose twitch. Suddenly his eyes filled with confusion, and his arms dropped an inch, leaving an opening. A guard tackled him, wrapping his armour-clad arms around the man's waist, and they both clattered to the floor. Lucy snapped out of the trance she was in and, against her better judgement, ran towards her father.

Jude Heartfilia was a horrible father, but Lucy's father, nonetheless.

She ducked and dodged the flames until she reached her father. He looked more angry than alarmed. His eyes were glaring at the guards who were having a hard time calming the place down. His face was covered in soot, and his clothes and facial hair were singed.

"I should fire them," he scowled to himself, "they can’t even handle one damn Dregling."

"One what?" Lucy exclaimed, the room shook again, and she decided she'd ask him later, "dad the building is on fire!" She had been so worried about him she forgot how much he irritated her. Jude stared at her in shock, as if he had just noticed her.

"Lucy what are you doing out of your room! I did not give you permission to leave!" Jeez, he needed to sort out his priorities. Another explosion racked the room. Lucy let out a cry as the wall blew up two feet away from them. Heat exploded beside Lucy as a torrent of fire blasted through the hole in the wall. Lucy did her best to shield herself from the flames as they filled the large room, melting metal and incinerating the destroyed furniture.

"We have to get out of here," Lucy said to no one in particular. She turned and ran, but she only made it halfway across the room before she realized her father was gone. She looked around in panic as she tried to find him. "Dammit." She muttered angrily, "Why do I even try?" Regretting not putting on slippers, she ran back across the flaming, marble floor to the gaping hole in the wall, that was at least ten feet in diameter, to see if her father was stupid enough to jump through it.

He was.

Of course he was.

He was walking right towards the scaled man. Stepping over fallen guards as if they did not exist, their armour melted in areas Lucy assumed the man’s fists had made contact.

"Listen here, beast!" the Dregling, as her father had called him earlier, dropped the guard he was holding by the throat and turned to face the man who had just addressed him, eyes wild. Jude flinched under the glare but did not back down. "You belong to me now!" He received a scoff and a snarl in reply, "Come peacefully and we will not harm you!" Lucy scoffed at that. Harm him? He had done most of the harming. Hell, they had no guards left! How the hell were they supposed to harm him? The Dregling must have thought the same, because fire sprung to life on his hands. Lucy's eyes widened. She could read it in his eyes. He was going to kill him. He was going to kill her father.

Lucy moved without thinking. Her legs broke into a sprint at the same time the man did. Lucy ran through the small fires and past the armoured bodies that littered the ground.

Somehow, she got there first.

Somehow the flaming fist stopped centimetres from her face.

Somehow both Lucy and Jude Heartfilia were not harmed.

Lucy could feel the intense heat radiating from the flames just centimetres from her nose. Making her eyes burn, her skin sweat, and small loose hairs singe. Her determined brown eyes found shocked onyx ones. The man’s nose twitched again.

“Smells funny..." it was barely a whisper, but Lucy somehow heard it. She didn’t have time to speak or think as a small dart sprouted from the man's neck where scales were absent. He recoiled and stumbled back, pulling the small projectile from his skin. Panic set into his features as he looked for an escape route, but too little too late as he was tackled by four guards. One holding him to the ground with one knee pressing to the spot between his shoulders and hand on the back of his head, another holding his legs and the last two shackled his wrists behind his back with strange cuffs Lucy had never seen before. The man tried to struggle but his eyes were unfocused and starting to glaze over. He let out roar of frustration, not nearly as powerful as the first one he had unleashed. Lucy's father pushed her aside to glare at the struggling man in front of him.

"Lock it up in my collection, and make sure it stays there." The guards hoisted the man to his feet, his head fell to his chest and he gazed at Jude with unfocused eyes. Jude grabbed the man's chin with his hand and seemed to examine him, receiving a low growl at the act. "Extraordinary," he mused to himself, "to think it was this powerful." He dropped the man's chin and it fell to his chest as he fell to unconsciousness. "Take it away."

Lucy watched as two guards dragged the man away down the hall. She wanted to follow them, but her father had other plans. Jude addressed the remaining two guards.

"Return Lucy to her room and make sure she stays there."

"But, wait!" Lucy opposed, "What was that all about? What’s a Dregling? Why was that man attacking? Is-"

"Quiet, Lucy! I never gave you permission to leave your room! You are to return there and never speak of this!"

Lucy puffed up her cheeks in anger but had no time to retort as the two guards pushed her towards the stairs. With no other choice, she obeyed; she silently walked behind the two guards. A breeze blew through the shattered windows that rustled Lucy's hair and pyjamas. A white piece of cloth rolled across the marble floors by her feet. Lucy stared at it. It seemed unharmed by the fight that had just occurred. Puzzled, Lucy quickly glanced at the two guards, who didn’t seem to be paying her any real attention, and she grabbed the strange piece of fabric and quickly hid it in her shirt.

It didn’t take long for Lucy's heavy bedroom door to close behind her and the click of the lock to sound. She would be spending quite some time in her room this time. She shuffled over to her bed, just now realizing how tired she was, and flopped down on her back. She took out the fabric from under her shirt; it was a scarf. She rubbed her thumb across the strange item. The fabric had an odd texture, like scales. It was a clean, solid white, like it had just been washed. It was strangely warm and smelled like a fireplace. She pressed her face to it. It was soft too, she realized. She folded the scarf and hid it in one of her desk drawers. She walked to her bathroom door and flicked on the light lacrima.

Lucy stared at herself in the mirror. She was filthy: soot covered her face and some of her hair was dishevelled and singed in a few places. She had just realized that her feet were burning; probably because she had stupidly run through fire. Her pyjamas were black in some places. She released a sigh. She took off her burnt pyjamas and turned on the shower, and after taking her second shower of the night, she changed into a new pair of pyjamas and wrapped up her feet in bandages after applying some cream. She curled up in her bed, but despite how exhausted she felt, sleep would not come. Questions tumbled through her head. Questions about her father, and Dreglings, and whether her mother's fairy tales were true, and by the time the she finally fell into restless sleep, the sun was starting to rise.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! First chapter is kinda short, but I think it gets the point across. Comment and let me know what you think. It'll help me decide to post more chapters.


	2. Flying Cats and... People?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Guess ill update?
> 
> asdfghj younger me cant write but i dont wanna rewrite anything so ill just *throws you messy chapter*

It was well into mid-evening when Lucy rejoined the waking world. She blinked up at the ceiling and tried to remember if the previous night had happened; the burning in her feet and her aching eyes confirmed it. Last night they had been attacked by a crazy flaming man-beast that for some reason her father had brought to their house.

Yep.

That sounded about right.

Lucy sat herself up in her bed and blinked at the sunlight shining through the large windows in her room. The blinding rays did not help her burning eyes; she tried to rub the heat out of them to no avail. She rolled out of her soft bed and slowly made her way to her bathroom. Lucy careful peeled off the bandages and ran the cold water in her tub. She rolled up her pyjama legs and let her feet soak and sighed in relief as the water soothed the stinging in her feet.

Lucy went through the events of the previous night; why had that man stopped mid-attack? Lucy wasn’t strong in combat. He could've mowed her down and killed her father easily: burnt them to ash in seconds. Yet he didn’t. He stopped. He spared them. He spared her.

Then there was her father bringing in a crazy, destructive, whatever-the-hell-a-Dregling-is to their house. She always knew her father was a bit off, but this was a whole new level of crazy.

Lucy sighed for what seemed like the tenth time and swung her feet out of the tub. She gently dried them off, careful not to rub them, and wrapped them up with new bandages. She pondered whether she wanted to stay in her pyjamas or if she should change into some proper clothes. She chose the latter. She began to unbutton the front of her Pyjamas when a blue blur caught her attention, probably just a bird. She walked through her closet of too-fancy-for-her-liking dresses. She hated those dresses, they made her feel trapped. And many of the long, layered dresses were far too hot for this time of year. She walked to the back of her closet and pulled out a pair of shorts and her favorite, light blue T-shirt with the Zodiac symbols on the collar and constellations scattered on the torso. Her mother had this shirt made for her.

That's what Lucy liked to think anyways.

After she was dressed, Lucy sat at her desk and picked up a pen and grabbed a piece of paper from one of the drawers in her desk. Her hands were itching to write, but her brain was concerned with other things. She could not bring her mind to settle down and focus on writing.

When she could not put her thoughts to words, she gave up and leaned back in her chair, opting instead to stare blankly at the ceiling. She let out a long breath and rubbed her face with her hands. Her eyes wandered down to the drawer where she hid the strange scarf the night before. Hesitantly, she opened the drawer and gazed at the gleaming scales that seemed to give off a strange light of their own. It was like they were glowing. The fabric had not been damaged by the flames or destruction that occurred last night at all. She scooped up the scarf and gently ran her fingertips over the strange material. The scales shined a beautiful, iridescent white; Purer than snow, almost like magic had kept it from burning.

Her thoughts broke when she caught another flash of blue in the corner of her eye. She could've sworn she saw a long tail whip behind it. She dropped the scarf on her desk and crossed the room to her balcony and pushed open the doors to lean over the railing to see if she could spot anything.

Nothing.

Just the gardens that stretched out across the grounds.

Then she heard the flutter of wings. Something told her it wasn't a bird. She turned back to her room and caught the blue blur at her desk. She ran back inside and locked the glass doors behind her.

_ Definitely _ not a bird.

It was a cat.

It was a blue cat.

It was a blue cat  _ with wings _ .

"What the hell?!" Lucy seemed to be saying that a lot recently. The blue cat snapped around at the exclamation, shock and fear written on the creature's face. It mouthed something and glanced to the locked doors behind Lucy. It then grabbed the scarf on her desk and bolted to the only other exit in the room. The large doors that lead into the hall.

Lucy's body moved before her mind did. She bolted after the blue cat, who had somehow managed to open the two large doors with his small paws; Lucy was sure they had been locked, and there were conveniently no guards. Weird. She chased the animal down the hall and turned the sharp corner to the staircase and somehow made it out of the mansion without being spotted. Running was probably a bad idea for her feet; she could feel the burnt skin rubbing against the bandages around her feet.

Ignoring the increasing pain, she continued following the flying cat down the stairs all while reaching for the creature's long tail. She let out a frustrated breath as it flew just out of her reach. She wished she had a net; a net would have made this a hell of a lot easier.

Lucy was somehow managing to keep up with the flying cat but unable to grab it at the height it was flying. She continued chasing the feline to a part of the grounds she had never been to before. She was not permitted to be outside the house often, if at all. Most times she had escaped the confines of her room where to visit her mother's grave or to sleep under the stars, but she was usually caught not long after.

Suddenly the cat stopped and dived behind the nearest bush. Lucy did the same, although she didn’t understand why. Then she heard footsteps and voices: guards. Lucy pressed herself into the bush as quietly as she could. Lucy held her breath as the guards ran past the bush she was hiding behind. She watched their backs as they continued to run, oblivious to Lucy hiding feet away from them. The guards spoke breathlessly and in panicked tones. When she was sure they were a good distance away she poked her head out from behind the bush. She slowly stood from her hiding place and searched for the strange animal who had led her there.

It was gone.

Of course it was gone. Lucky Lucy Heartfilia. Lucy swore to herself. It had flown off while she was hiding behind the bush. She turned to return to the house when she heard a distant rumble. She looked around to see if the guards had heard it to but when no one came Lucy hurried off in the direction of the noise. She stepped cautiously; making sure there were no guards around.

She surveyed her surroundings: the grass was overgrown and unattended, weeds choked the wildflowers, and bushes were left to grow. In the middle of the overgrowth stood a familiar shack, though Lucy could not place where she knew it from. Like a warm, forgotten dream.

Lucy stepped up to the door, which was falling off its hinges, and entered through the doorway. Nothing interesting lay inside the building; faded furniture, worn curtains, moldy rug; most of what you would expect in an old shack. The air was stale and dusty, and the old furniture gave off a strange musty smell. For some reason however, Lucy found herself smiling.

_ 'It seems like a place mother would like,'  _ Lucy thought.

Lucy shook herself out of her thoughts and reminded herself what she was looking for.

Just what was she looking for?

There were no other entrances in the shack. Lucy doubted this shack had any connection to her father’s collection at all. For all she knew this was just some old servants’ home. Her attention fell to her feet, they were burning again.

"Dammit," she complained, "who's idea was this?!"

_ 'Mine.' _ She remembered.

She moved to the worn sofa to remove the weight she was putting on her injured feet and sank into the old cushions. She hissed in pain as her feet throbbed. Hopefully they should heal soon, the burns weren't bad.

Lucy's mind wandered to the strange man for the third time that evening. The Dregling. Lucy had heard of magical creatures with powers strong enough to tear through entire armies’ single handed. She would often listen through the cracks in her door to the guards told to keep watch after her short escapades. They would talk of entire towns covered in unmeltable ice. Towns cut to shreds. Towns lit a flame and burned to cinders. They would talk of monsters.

Was the man one of those monsters? One of those monsters who tore down buildings and civilizations like they were nothing, leaving destruction in their wake?

_ 'Well, he did almost destroy father’s house,' _ Lucy reminded herself,  _ 'single handed. Just like the stories.' _

Lucy wished she had some medicine, or painkillers at least. She had irritated her feet more than she thought; running through the untamed gardens with just bandages, infection was inevitable; could burns get infected? She wasn't sure.

The sun interrupted her train of thought by shining in her eyes; was the sun setting already? She had woken up sometime in the evening, Lucy realized. Of course the sun was starting to set.

Lucy felt the urge to go and lay down in the overgrown grass and stare at the stars. She wanted to forget the flying cat; curiosity, however, had already wrapped its fingers around her mind and gripped it tight. There was no going back.

What had she gotten herself into?

Lucy pushed herself from the dusty couch onto her feet. Whatever she had gotten into was far better than the boring life she led before; that was what she hoped anyways.

~~~~

Lucy was lost. The sun had long since set and she was wandering around the overgrowth for however long. The moon was hanging quietly over the trees was the only light Lucy had to aid her searching, and the crickets were the only noise other than her footsteps in the long grass. Lucky for Lucy it wasn’t cold out. The warm, summer night wasn’t going to let her freeze in her shorts and t-shirt.

Lucy was getting frustrated. The weird cat was nowhere in sight, and Lucy’s feet were starting to distract her from any other train of thought. She was starting to wish she was back in her room with her books and her bed and her pens. Damn cats and curiosity were going to be the death of her.

“ _ Psst. _ ” Lucy spun on the spot. The sound of buzzing and the wind seemed to blow against her ear.

“Who’s there?” Lucy’s first instinct was  _ guards! They found me! _ But the voice was too soft to be male and far too close to be a whisper in the bushes either.

“ _ Fairy Tale.” _ What?

“What?”

“ _ What about Mythals?” _ Seriously, What?

“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“ _ Natsu Dragneel? Dreglings?” _ oh.

“Are you looking for that Flaming Crazy Person-Thing?”

“ _ Now we are getting somewhere.” _

“Where are we getting? Who are you?”

“ _ I guess it’s only fair. You don’t seem like an enemy.” _ There was a flutter of air and buzzing of what seemed to be dragonfly wings and a word seemed to appear in mid air,  _ GROW,  _ and a loud pop!

There was suddenly a very short woman with pale blue hair beside Lucy holding her hand out in greeting. Lucy, like any confused person would do in this situation, jumped back in shock. The more Lucy stared at this person she noticed stranger and stranger details about said person, like the four wings and pointed tail that shifted behind her, the immediate likability this person seemed to emanate, how her eyes just seemed to stare directly into Lucy’s entire being, and how the moon light cast strange shadows on this strange youthful girl’s face. She held out her hand.

“My name is Levy McGarden. Would you be so kind as to give me your name, Ms.-?”

“Lu-” Lucy paused, the immediate trust in this person fading. “You may call me Lu. May I ask why you are looking for that person who almost blew up my father’s house last night?”

“I like you  _ Lu.” _ She dropped her hand to her side after it remained empty for too long. “Many humans have fallen for that trick, but there’s more to you than meets the eye isn’t there?”

“What do you mean?” Weird. “You still haven’t answered my question about that man, why are you looking for him?”

“We never leave a man behind.” The girl, Levy, stopped talking and started writing words in the dirt with her finger. Lucy realized she wouldn’t get any more out of Levy and decided to peak at what the girl was writing. She then immediately gave up when the letters were unlike any she had seen before. So she sat down. Deciding it would be better to take the weight off her feet instead of agonizing over the strange letters and the equally strange person writing them. Minutes passed. Then more. Lucy had taken to staring up at the stars as they stretched across the sky. Lucy spotted the cancer constellation. She traced the stars with her finger slowly. Then glanced back at Levy, who was watching her curiously.

“What are you waiting for if I may ask.”

“Happy.”

“Happy, like the emotion? Or happy like-” Lucy paused. There was only the emotion.

“Happy is an Exceed. We were supposed to wait until midnight. But  _ someone _ got antsy.” Levy muttered a name under her breath. “I’m guessing since you don’t know what a Mythal is or haven’t tried to tie me up I can trust you.” She dragged her foot over the words she was writing in the dirt effectively erasing them. “and since my words don’t seem to be working, I might as well talk to you.” Lucy sat up as Levy strolled over and sat down in front of Lucy, face to face, Levy's wings rustled behind her till they seemed comfortable.

“Mythals are people with the ability to harness the magic rushing through the earth and use it to their own will. Humans, like Jude Heartfilia and his army, can not use magic as we can. So they create objects to wield the magic through. Like lacrima and weapons. Humans used to be happy with just harvesting from eathernanos ore and nature itself, but a few centuries ago humans discovered that you can harvest from and implant magic into other beings. Humans tried, but unless the person trying to implant the magic into themselves already has some magical ability, the magic burns them apart from the inside. Not very pleasant as you can imagine. So humans opted for a different solution, trafficking Mythals and syphoning their magic for power and status. Large collections of magic items and Mythals such as the one hidden on these grounds are what we are here for. We shut them down and free any Mythals and take any items that may be of need to us and the other guilds.”

By the time Levy finished Lucy’s head was reeling. So that’s what her father’s collection was! Magic was real! Her mother’s stories were real! Her father lied to her! Before Lucy could ask one of the many questions that were spinning in her head, a high-pitched voice called from a distance.

“Happy! Down here!” Levy called back, standing back up. It must almost be midnight. “is everyone in place?”

“Aye, Sir!” the darkness kept Lucy from seeing the speaker properly, but wings flapped loudly as a form drifted down from the sky and landed on levy’s head. It looked like a cat?

“Oh!” Lucy exclaimed. “It’s you! You’re that blue cat that snuck into my room and took that scarf!”

“Wow!” the cat exclaimed, Happy apparently, “I can’t believe you followed me all the way out here!” it sprung off Levy’s head. “You must be really stupid to not just head back to that building when I lost you!”

It was at that very moment Lucy decided she was one day going to murder that blue cat.

“Happy,” Levy scolded, “be good or I leave you here, Okay?”

“Aye.” Happy hopped onto Lucy’s head this time, before Lucy could swat him off, he continued, “thanks for keeping his scarf safe, it means a lot to Natsu.”

Okay. Maybe she wasn’t going to murder Happy  _ yet _ .

“Heads up you two.” Levy kneeled in the long grass. “Happy, can you carry Lu?”

“Aye.”

“Wait I don-” Lucy tried to interject.

“Then we move.” There was a streak of blue light. Then a red one, followed by dark green and pink. Levy held her hand to that sky. A stream of orange light launched from her palm and all five exploded into a symbol Lucy had never seen before.

“Now.” Levy launched into the sky, Happy and Lucy hot on her tail.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> chapter composition? whats that?
> 
> leave comment and lemme know what you think.


	3. The Human's Treasure

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> asdfghjk i got so caught up in playing d&d again after 3 weeks i completely forgot i was doing this haha rip here you go ig

Lucy’s yells were lost to the wind as Happy carried her above the trees toward the forest south of the estate. Crooked trees reached out to each other as their branches intertwined from years without pruning. Levy was just feet ahead of them. Her wings moving at incredible speeds to keep her ahead of happy who was flapping his white wings just as vigorously. They reached the center of the forest quickly. Levy dove into the trees and Happy quickly copied her. Leaves and small branches beat against Lucy’s arm as she brought them up to protect her face. The silence of the forest enveloped them as they landed on the grass, tree roots and rocks had long taken over the forest floor. Levy held a finger to her lips, and she moved slowly forward towards something as Lucy picked leaves and twigs from her hair, try to retain some of what it looked like before the windblown knots had taken over. Happy followed on Levy’s tail, circling slowly above Lucy in the air.

“What are you looking for?” Lucy whispered. Levy only shook the same finger in front of her mouth and pointed in front of them mouthing the word  _ invisible _ . And left it at that.

Sure. Invisible. This might as well just happen then. Lucy followed.

After about a minute of slow sneaking and weaving through the trees. Levy stopped and kneeled looking at something on the ground. Happy landed on her shoulder and Lucy remained behind them. Levy reached down to the ground and started to move her hand back and forth as if she was writing something in mid air. Suddenly the same strange runes that Lucy had seen Levy writing in before began to glow, floating an inch off the ground. Levy turned back towards Lucy mouthing the same word to her again, except this time Lucy understood. Invisibility Enchantment.

Levy continued to mouth words to herself and write in that strange language until she stood up, satisfied and urged Lucy forward past the runic words. As soon as she stepped through the enchantment Lucy gaped. A building stood amidst the tangled trees. A small clearing circled the building. The building itself was maybe ten feet by twenty, standing 10 feet tall. The building was overall unimpressive. But Lucy got the feeling the inside mattered more.

Levy beckoned Lucy forwards again as she moved toward the doors. There were suspiciously no guards, but Lucy guess they might be preoccupied with whoever Levy signalled to earlier. The doors were, however, locked. Levy stood in front of the doors and pointed a finger, moving it as if she was writing in the air.

“Key.” She said simply. The spoken word appeared in the air, and rammed itself against the door, which promptly and leisurely swung open. She marched into the building, an eager Happy and aghast Lucy in tow.

~~~~

The building was far better kept inside than it was outside. The room was filled with small trinkets in glass cases all circling a large descending spiral staircase in the center. There were swords, what looked like wands, an old giant axe, glasses, coins, quills, and what looked like a silver key. A silver key shaped like a cross. Lucy started toward its case.

“Lu. Let’s keep moving.” She started toward the staircase. “Any Mythals in this collection should be at the very bottom of the stairs. Best we start moving.”

“O-Ok.” Lucy hesitantly tore herself away from the key and followed levy down the stairs, Happy gliding just in front of them.

The stairs continued for a very,  _ very _ long time. Who needs  _ this many _ stairs? Who  _ wants _ this many stairs? But they kept going. Passing a few floors on their way down. All filled with interesting things, none of them labeled. Lucy felt pity for the tour guide.

They spent about ten minutes walking down the stairs before they reached the bottom. It was a large room filled with glass enclosures, most of them empty. The select few had strange beast and animals in them. All huddled in a corner of their enclosure. In the, exact same corner, of their enclosure. Lucy was midway through forming the question of why they were all huddled in the same corner when she found out why they were all huddled in the same corner of their enclosure. The entire floor shook beneath their feet for a few seconds.

“Natsu?” Happy said.

“Natsu.” Levy agreed.

“Oh boy.” Lucy groaned.

And so they sprinted towards the crazy roaring man who can light himself on fire.

Lucy was faced with a similar picture. The man, Natsu she now knew him by, was cloaked in crimson flames and stood in the center of the cage he was trapped in. Scales and horns and bright pink hair smoking in the torrent of flames licking at his skin. The environment was covered in ash around him and the glass was black in some areas. He spotted them, glaring at the foggy glass around him for a second, before he recognized two of the people, well one person and one cat, running towards him. The flames immediately dropped as an equally warm smile lifted his face from rage to excitement. He yelled something. As they got closer to where Natsu was, Lucy realized why he was in the middle of the room he was in, his arms were pinned to his sides and his hands were enclosed in large shackles that covered his hands up to his forearms. The chains keeping his arms pinned connected to multiple different pegs in the ground, keeping him away from the glass and walls. Despite his situation he beamed at Happy and Levy, even at Lucy. He bounced on his toes, obviously ready to get out of the chains keeping him stationary.

He yelled something again. Levy seemed to understand and held out both her hands, writing with them in the air.

“Slice!” the words flew from her hands and the identical words flew at the glass in a cross. Natsu inhaled deeply and smoke started to roll off his shoulders. Before he exhaled Levy yelled a warning and flicked her wrist. A  _ shield _ appeared in front of her and Lucy promptly ducked behind it. Happy was already at the ceiling before Natsu roared again. The room was instantly filled with flames and the glass enclosure squealed in protection before large cracks stretched from the two cuts in the glass.

Natsu’s roar continued a couple seconds after the flames died down, the glass riddled with cracks and far more blackened than before. Natsu looked a little upset, then promptly kicked one of the sandals he was wearing at the glass.

The sandal barely nicked the glass as the entire enclosure collapsed around him.

“Damn,” he muttered, “was hoping that’d be way cooler.”

“Natsu!!” The blue blur yelled as it flew down from the ceiling towards the pink pyromaniac.

“Woah, little buddy!” Natsu tried to hold his hands up in warning. “been warming up the past however long it's been, probably safer to keep your distance for now.”

He had a point, Lucy could see the heat distortion in the air around the man, and she was sweating just being in his proximity. Just as Lucy finished that thought the word  _ water _ appeared above Natsu and a wave of water cascaded down on him. A satisfying hiss filled the air as the water turned to steam. The wave helped the temperature from rising even more but the large room was still a few degrees warmer than it was when they first entered the room.

“Thanks Levy. Now do you think,” Natsu shook some of the quickly drying hair from his eyes, “you could help me with these?” he again tried to hold up his hands.

Levy smiled and asked why he thinks she soaked him in water and proceeded to  _ slice  _ through every restraint holding him down. Happy then glided down to give Natsu a hug and sit among the horns and pink hair on his head reaching behind him to pull something from the little green bag on his back. Lucy simply watched the exchange. These strange people with tails and wings and horns and scales, perfectly comfortable and close as family.

When Natsu was finally freed of the chains, he promptly dropped into the splits and began to stretch his arms and shoulders, voicing his relief and gratitude to both Levy and Happy. The former replied, calling him a show off and told him to stand up and get ready for work.

“The others are already tearing down the Heartfilia estate and army,” Levy explained, “and unless you want to join them in the fun, we have to hurry.” Natsu smiles in agreement, rolling onto his back and using his arms to flip to his half-bare feet.

“Agreed, can’t let stripcicle and black steel have all the fun. Plus” Natsu’s face changed to a serious frown, his hand rose up to his neck. “I have something I need to find when we get there.” It was at that point the scarf Happy had removed from Lucy’s room hung down in front of his face. Which he snatched out of the cat’s paws as stared at it in surprise before wrapping it around his neck and turning his head to face Happy, smiling again.

“How-”

Happy pointed towards Lucy, “I found it in her room.”

Natsu’s full attention settled on Lucy for the first time at that moment. His eyes drilled into her as he started in her direction. She tried not to take any steps back as he stuck his face inches from hers, still staring at her intensely. His nose crinkled for a second as smoke drifted from the corner of his mouth. A wide smile cracked his expressionless face in two and dropped his arm around her shoulders and neck, pulling her into his warm side.

“Thanks Weirdo! Who knows who that bastard would’ve sold it to if you hadn’t found it!”

“I have a name! It’s Lucy. Lucy Heartfilia. You almost burned my father’s house down!” Lucy tried to shove him off her, but he held her there for a second more, pondering before he let her go. Stepping back. “What’s so special about it anyways?”

“My dad gave it to me. It’s made of dragon scales,  _ his _ scales.”

“You were raised by a dragon.”

“Yes.”

“Sure.”

“Well yeah. You kinda were too,” he gestured to the room around them. “this hoard is nowhere near the size of Igneel’s but it’s a hoard nonetheless.”

“Um.” Levy cleared her throat. “I hate to interrupt, whatever this is, but we really should be going.” She flicked her wrist towards the ground and some Runic words appeared on the ground in front of her. “We’re coming back later anyways. Smoky here just got too excited and ran ahead, this wasn’t the original plan. Fairy Tail needs both our help.” Natsu pounded a fist against the other hand, small flames danced along his arms for a second.

“Right.” He grabbed both Lucy’s and Levy’s arm in each hand and began dragging the two towards the stairs, both protested, the latter commenting she could fly. Happy laughed behind them, following the three to the stairs.

“Levy I think Natsu forgot his shoe.”

“Shh,” Levy smirked, “let’s see how long it takes for him to realize.”

~~~~

It took them twice as long to reach the top of the stairs and it did for them to reach the bottom.

Wait.

Let me clarify.

It took Natsu, who has endless energy, Levy, who can fly, and Happy, who can also fly, about five minutes.

It took Lucy, who has lived a majority of her life locked in her room, twice as long, most of it was spent complaining, until Levy requested Happy carry her, who then complained she was heavy, the rest of the way up.

It took about nine minutes to climb the stairs. Which I must say is better than ten.

Once they reached the top of the stairs, Levy stopped.

“Okay here’s what we’ll do.” Levy turned to address Happy. “You’ll take Natsu ahead to blue team- oh shut up Natsu, that was the plan before you ran off anyways- and I will carry Lu as far as I can.”

“Can’t I go meet up with Erza instead,” Natsu begged, “Hell I’ll even take Black Steel over Stripsicle.”

“The Master wouldn’t be happy if you ran off again.” Levy cocked her head, placing her hands on her hips “and Erza would be twice as mad when she finds out I let team dreglings let loose on a mission like this again.” a very smug look curved onto the woman’s face. “Remember  _ last time _ Smokey?”

Natsu, who had been watching the flames on the lanterns with abnormal interest suddenly paled and stiffened, the flames casting dark shadows on his face.

“T-team Ice Queen it is then.” Natsu stuttered. “Happy?”

“Aye.” on queue the cat left his station with Lucy and latched onto the back of Natsu’s vest.

“Wait!” Levy called, “you must be drained.” She flicked her wrist again as the word  _ fire _ formed in the air. “maybe have a quick refill before you go.”

Natsu grinned and began to inhale through his mouth. The fire began to distort and move towards him. Lucy gaped as he then began to _swallow the_ _flames._ When the flames were gone, he sighed, wiped his mouth and grinned giving his thanks to Levy for the meal.

“Alright Happy let’s head out.” Natsu walked to the doors, kicking them open, and made a run for it as happy lifted him into the sky.

“He eats  _ fire!? _ ” was the first thing out of Lucy’s mouth. Levy turned to face her, giggling.

“I guess he does.” She reached her hand out to Lucy, who had been kneeling on the ground to catch her breath. “Come on. Let’s get going so Happy doesn’t have to double back as far.”

Lucy accepted the hand and pulled herself to her feet, wincing a little. All the excitement temporarily made her forget her feet were still injured, and Levy noticed her shift.

“Did Natsu do that?” Levy sounded more vexed then worried.

“Indirectly, when he lit my father’s house on fire. It was more a result of my running around barefoot on hot marble then him going on a rampage.” Lucy looked at the burns, they were more irritated than anything.

“We have someone who can help you with that.” Still holding Lucy’s hand, Levy began moving toward the kicked open doors. “Honestly that idiot needs to watch what he’s doing, he’ll burn down the guildhall one day, I swear.”

Once they reached the small clearing surrounding the building Levy wrapped her arms around Lucy’s waist as her wings began flapping.

“This’ll probably be a little uncomfortable, I don’t usually carry people.” Levy apologized into Lucy’s ear before launching of the ground into the sky once more.

Happy intercepted them after about three minutes of uncomfortable flying. Both women sighed in relief as Happy took Lucy into his paws, even when Happy groaned that Lucy was still too heavy. The Heartfilia estate came into view soon after, and it was on fire. Giant spires of blue ice stretched into the dark sky to the east of the mansion, matched with iron monoliths to the west. A small tornado twisted the air until it evaporated, as lightning curled up the iron spires.

Lucy didn’t really care much for the building as she used to, but seeing it half collapsed broke her heart just a little.

“My room!” Lucy shouted through the wind whipping past her. “Happy, can you fly me to my room!”

Lucy yelped as Happy’s trajectory suddenly changed course, headed for where Lucy and Happy had first made contact with each other. Another ice spire grew just thirty feet away from them and there was a shout and a blast of heat and light followed by another shout. Just what was happening down there, barely fifty feet away.

Happy steered Lucy towards the balcony of her room, half collapsed from what looked like a large shard of ice, which also seemed to be what was holding the trembling walls from caving in on themselves. Lucy dropped carefully onto the balcony, though Happy still held onto her shirt, folding his wings behind himself. Lucy tread carefully through the shattered glass of her once balcony doors and slowly made her way to her desk.

Lucy shuffled through her drawers of papers and pens, grabbing her favorite quill, a large bracelet given to her by her mother, every letter she had ever written, and a large stack of papers held together by string. Lucy then grabbed a thin blanket from her bed, holding it by the corners, and tossed the items in the middle. She tied the blanket in a large knot, her father never supplied her with a bag, and gave one last look at her prison before nodding to Happy, who promptly carried her back through the shattered doors.

~~~~

The fighting had ended by the time Lucy and Happy reached the ground. The graceful stone pathways were scattered with rubble and unconscious guards, the carefully tended gardens Lucy once escaped too and watched the stars in were torn and nearly frozen over if not for the patches of water and burnt bushes. There was a large portion of land flooded around the fountain, which was intact but somehow empty.

Happy and Lucy followed the path of destruction to where Natsu and team blue were most likely resting. Lucy made sure not to slip on any patches of ice and step over any unconscious guards. There was a moment of shouting, which Happy assured meant that they were close.

“You couldn’t save any for me, you damn Popsicle!” It was Natsu. “It’s the polite thing to do, although you wouldn’t know being raised in the frickin mountains would you!”

“Oh yeah!” A new voice retorted. “at least I was raised by a person not a fucking  _ fire beast! _ ”

“Yeah! well-”

“And if I’m so damn uncultured, where’s your other shoe, Smoke Breath!”

“Probably up your a-”

“Natsu!” Happy interrupted, amused. “I’m back! and I brought the weirdo like you asked!”

“It’s Lucy, cat.  _ Lucy.” _ Happy ignored her. The familiar scaled, and pink haired man jumped out from behind a tree and wrapped his arms around the blue cat, who only laughed and clawed at the man’s scales, not even scratching them.

“Happy! And you to Weirdo-”

“Lucy.”

“-we were just waiting for you two to meet up with us, before we left to meet up with everyone else.” Natsu turned back to where he came from and gestured for Lucy to follow. They entered a small courtyard surrounded by more destroyed bushes. There were two more people there.

The first was male. He didn’t turn to face Lucy right away, his gaze glaring at Natsu. His dark hair hung in his eyes and he was very much only wearing pants. His bare arms and shoulders were covered in delicate white designs, that Lucy realized as she got closer, was frost. A silver, cross-like pendant hung around his neck by a chain. Lucy also realized his ears were pointed but angled back and down. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a box, then scowled when he realized the box was frozen shut, shoving it back into his pocket.

The second was a female, and she had pale white skin and brilliant blue hair falling out from a fur-lined hat down her shoulders in soft waves that almost shimmered in the moonlight. She gave off an air of enchantment. She was wearing an ankle length blue dress with a slit from the hem to her hip. In all honesty, she was rather pretty, and watching Lucy with suspicion, glancing back and forth between Natsu and Lucy, then Lucy and the second man before shuffling closer to the second man, who promptly moved away from the blue haired woman.

The dark-haired man spoke first.

“Natsu, who’s your friend.” He crossed his arms.

“This,” Natsu dropped his arm around Lucy’s shoulders, “Is Lucy. Happy found her in the building and she smells weird.” Lucy couldn’t help but feel insulted. The second man rested his face in his hands, frost falling from his arms.

“Natsu-”

“She has magic.”

Both strangers looked, and Lucy, looked at Natsu in different looks of shock.

“She’s human, she can’t have magic.”

“She smells funny, Gray.”

“I don’t think-” Gray, the man with dark hair, sighed, “okay then, let’s ask Grandpa about it.” Gray scanned the ground around them, before reaching down and picking up a coat, shaking it and the frost off, then draping it over one shoulder. “Let’s go.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thanks again for reading lemme know what you think with some of those good good comments see yall next week probably


	4. Explanations

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> w- what if i updated?

Natsu and Gray bickered most of the way to wherever it was they were going. Juvia, as the blue haired woman introduced herself as, ensured it was normal.

“Juvia knows it’s just how they communicate.” She said, as Natsu lit himself on fire and sent a kick with his bare foot towards Gray’s face, who dodged it and told Natsu stiffly to cool down. Lucy noticed more frost curling up Gray’s arm. She also noticed the heat waves distorting the air around Natsu again.

“You’re overheating, man.” Gray said through his teeth. “ _ Calm down.” _

Natsu grumbled, picking up his speed to walk ahead of the other three with happy circling above him. Lucy cleared her throat, curiosity finally getting the better of her.

“So,” she hesitated, unsure how to phrase her question, “what about you two?”

“Juvia controls water.” Juvia demonstrated, using one of the puddles of water around them, she pulled the clear liquid to her and it swirled a few centimeters over her hand. “Juvia is what humans call a water nymph, but Juvia is really an Elf.” Juvia then dropped the water, both women look expectantly at Gray.

Gray only clasped both hands together, mist formed as the temperature around his hands dropped. When he separated his hands the same symbol Lucy had seen explode in the sky just a few hours earlier sat in the palm of his hand. He offered the symbol to Lucy, who took it.

“I use ice.” Gray said simply, then walked ahead. Lucy watched his back then turned to the small ice sculpture in her hands, it was the same blue ice the large spires of ice she had seen were made of. The ice reflected the moon beautifully.

“Juvia loves her beloved’s magic, it is beautiful.” Juvia was staring at Gray’s back in front of them. “Although no one knows what her beloved is, he won’t say.” Juvia then turned to whisper to Lucy. “Juvia speculates he is a type of elf. The Master suspects otherwise, but the Master won’t voice his suspicions. Juvia understands. It is not the master's place to tell.”

Lucy looked back at the ice sculpture in her hands, it hadn’t even started to melt despite the summer heat and the warmth of Lucy’s hands. Juvia then tapped her shoulder.

“What about you?” Juvia was looking into Lucy’s eyes, inspecting her face. Lucy took a step back.

“I’m not- I don’t-’ Lucy stuttered, waving her empty hand. “I’m not anything special, I’m human.”

“But Natsu sensed magic in you. And Natsu’s nose is never wrong.”

“My father is human. I didn’t know my mother well, but I don’t think any sane magical person would ever marry him, let alone have kids with-”

“We will have to speak with the Master then. Juvia is curious what Natsu meant.”

“Who is this Master you keep referring to?”

“Master Makarov. He is very wise and very strong with magic. He will know.”

“As long as he doesn’t crush you first!” Lucy screamed as hands grasped her shoulders. She stuck her elbow out behind her and struck something. The hands let go and a soft  _ oof _ came from her attacker. Juvia turned her head and Lucy turned around, fists raised, ready to sock someone in the jaw.

Natsu let out a breathless laugh.

“You’ve got,  _ oh ouch _ , you’ve got a good elbow Weirdo! Wow  _ jeez. _ I did _ not _ expect that.” Happy glided down and landed on Natsu’s head, also laughing.

“ _ Natsu! _ ” Lucy dropped her fists, then turned to the blue cat. “Was that your idea cat! You little- get over here!” Happy’s face dropped, though he continued laughing, as Lucy made a lunge for him. Happy made an attempt to fly away, but it was thwarted as Lucy got a hold of his back foot and pulled him into her arms and squeezed as hard as she could. Happy flailed clawing at her, eventually getting her to drop him. He launched into the air still laughing as Lucy squawked at him then at Natsu as he offered to throw her into the air after the cat. Juvia watched amused as Gray told them to quit messing around, and that they had kept Erza and the Master waiting long enough.

~~~~

The rest of the walk was relatively quiet, with the casual comment from Happy or Natsu about the battle or fish. Juvia eventually asked Lucy if she could have the small ice symbol Gray had made, Lucy handed it over and the nymph carefully put it in a small bag on her hip, thanking the blond. It didn’t take long to reach the campsite where the rest of the Guild, as the three Mythals called it, was waiting to regroup. Gray and Juvia separated off to speak with someone and Natsu ran off to search for someone called ‘black steel’ to pick a fight. So Lucy was left alone to mingle or stand alone awkwardly, unsure of what to do with herself.

She clung onto her makeshift blanket bag before setting it down on the ground. She carefully pulled the large knot loose a little and dug around for the bracelet her mother had given her. It was a very strange bracelet. It was far too big to fit her wrist but too small for her neck, so it wasn’t a necklace. She played with the ring, inspecting it. It was silver and gold swirled together delicately with a clasp bending inwards and there seemed to be three symbols carved into the ring. Lucy looked closer, they were the symbols for the constellations Cancer, Taurus, and Aquarius. Lucy questioned why only three of three Zodiacs were carved into the ring. Why not all twelve?

“Lu!” Lucy snapped her head up towards the voice. Levy was running towards her, two other figures followed behind her. Lucy waved awkwardly to Levy.

“How are you?” Levy asked, gaze dropping for a second to her feet. “Come sit down, there’s someone I want you to meet. Who did you come here with?”

Lucy was led to a log which Levy pushed her down onto before sitting down herself.

“Happy carried me over to Natsu after the fighting ended.”

“So you met Gray and Juvia then? Good good.” Levy gestured to two people walking towards them. “This is Wendy, and the big grumpy one is Gajeel.”

The little girl, who Lucy assumed was Wendy, looked human at first. She had dark blue hair pulled up in twin ponytails. She didn't seem to be any older than fourteen. Her ears were long and pointed like Natsu’s and her face had small feather-like scales around her brown eyes. Lucy thought she was wearing a shawl but then realized that she had white feathers growing from her shoulders, wrists, and ankles. She dug a foot nervously into the ground and gave a friendly smile, revealing sharp canines.

Gajeel was by far the scariest of the two. His red eyes had slits and stared at her intensely. his skin had a gray tint to it and gleaming scales covered his face, neck, shoulders and arms. Metal like studs and piercings stuck out of his pointed ears and covered his face. Similar studs were implanted in the part of his forearms that had skin instead of scales. Multiple scars covered his right arm; they must have been old, no scales grew along them. Tangled black hair reached down to his lower back. His face remained set in a scowl although he bared his teeth, showing similar sharp canines as Wendy, in what Lucy assumed was an attempt at a smile.

“Gajeel and Wendy are Dreglings, like Natsu.” Levy explained. “Sky Dregling,” She pointed at Wendy, who smiled, “Iron Dregling.” She pointed at Gajeel, who did nothing.

“Hi,” Lucy waved hesitantly. Wendy responded to her greeting with a wave, Gajeel grunted in greeting after a stern look from levy.

“Wendy,” Levy gestured to Lucy’s feet, “We have a Natsu victim. Do you think you could?”

“Oh!” Wendy scurried over and kneel in front of Lucy, “I would be happy to help!”

Lucy watched in awe as Wendy held her hands over Lucy’s feet as they softly began to glow with a teal light. Immediately her feet began to feel better, and the red burns slowly faded back to her normal skin colour.

“The burns aren’t too bad,” Wendy explained, “but I’ll bet running around on them is what caused the worst of it.” Wendy’s hands stopped glowing and she tucked them into her lap.

“There.” The girl let out a small yawn. “All done. You should be fine. I’m going to go see if anyone else needs help before Charle finds out how much magic I’ve used.” And with that the girl pushed off her knees onto her feet and took off.

“Shrimp.” Gajeel finally spoke up and nodded his head in Lucy’s direction. “Who is she?”

“Be polite, Gajeel. She’s our guest.” Gajeel was not satisfied with that response.

“ _ Who is she _ , Levy? Can't you sense-”

“We don’t know, Natsu mentioned it. I’m sure Makarov can tell us more.”

“More about what?” Lucy spoke up. “I’m  _ right here _ you know. I would like to know what’s going on.” Lucy stood up, crossing her arms. “Who are you people? Why are you here? Why am I here?”

“All those questions will be answered soon, my child.” The man who spoke up walked up behind Levy, pushing her aside with his staff, which was three times the size of himself. He was old and wearing very strange clothes and a white fur lined coat. “I am Makarov Dreyar, the master of this guild.” He gestured to the log behind Lucy. “Please, my child, have a seat.”

Many other faces stopped and turned to face the strange blond girl who their Master was speaking with. Lucy gave all her attention to the strange little man, as she was finally getting some answers.

“We are one of many groups called Guilds, our name is Fairy Tale, who banded together for protection for those who may want to use us for our natural magical abilities. My children and I are here to bring down your father’s collection of magical items and creatures he had been collecting for nearly a decade. We take the items and free any Mythals we find in these collections. Any items we find are given to a counsel and distributed to other Mythals and guilds equally, after we have taken our share of course. You are here because some of our own have sensed a power from you but are baffled by you.” Natsu blew a puff of fire from his mouth at this statement. “You are human as you say, however humans do not have natural magic, nor do they have the potential for it. But you, child, give off a faint aura of pure magical potential. That is why I am here speaking with you now, because you are impossible.”

Lucy sat there in shock and thought. Everything was happening too fast. She felt dizzy, confused. Why was all this happening now? Lucy had unconsciously been fiddling with the bracelet during this speech. It felt warm in her hand as her fingers rubbed the symbols carved into the delicate metal. Makarov watched her absorb the information he had just given her, patient and understanding. No one spoke, and some people turned away to give Lucy and Makarov space. It was a woman with shocking scarlet hair wearing armour who cut through the tension.

“Master,” she placed a hand on Makarov’s shoulder, speaking into his ear, “perhaps we should leave her to think, we still have work to do.”

Makarov’s entire personality changed, his voice rose in pitch and an almost carefree expression settled onto his face.

“Hmm, you’re right.” He turned to Levy and Natsu, “you two! Lead the way.” He turned and began walking. Levy nodded and called for everyone to follow her. Natsu rushed ahead again screaming for them to keep up with him if they didn’t want him to take everything he liked before they ever got there. Gajeel, Gray, Wendy and a few others yelled at him and also broke into a run, trying to catch the pink haired bastard.

“Oh Master,” said the woman with scarlet hair, “The Raijin Tribe left ahead of us. Laxus said he had work to do.”

“That boy, always in a rush.” Makarov waved over his shoulder, “thank you, Erza.”

The scarlet haired woman nodded her head then turned to face Lucy, who was still frozen in thought.

“Lucy was it?” Lucy looked up at the woman, “I am Erza Scarlet of Fairy Tale. You may call me Erza.”

“Hi Erza,” Lucy pulled herself up from the log and held out her hand in greeting, “it’s a pleasure to meet you.”

“And you as well.” Erza smiled warmly before turning around and yanking Lucy by the arm in the direction the rest of the guild was headed. “Come, we are falling behind the group. I want to see if there are any new weapons to add to my collection.”

~~~~

Erza held her firm grip on Lucy’s arm until they reached the clearing before the forest where the collection building was hidden. It was at that point where Erza realized Lucy’s wrist was not made of steel and that a bruise was likely going to grow had she continued to drag the poor shouting blond any further. Erza had quickly released the girl and bowed her apologies repeatedly.

Most of the guild fell behind them save for the few who stopped at the edge of the forest to catch their breaths or wait for the others. Natsu and Happy were perched in a tree, watching the surrounding area. Small flames danced along Natsu’s knuckles as he sat patiently. Levy was hovering a few feet off the ground chatting with two men, one with black hair and another with red. Gajeel was carving lines in a nearby tree with his fingers and occasionally glancing at Levy and the other two men with her. Gray was leaning against the tree Natsu was stationed in with Juvia behind the tree, watching him. Wendy patiently sat cross legged on the grass with a white cat in her arms, who looked indignant to everything.

“Jeez you guys are slow.” Natsu taunted from his tree. “I’ve been waiting for her for thirty minutes.”

“It’s only been five, smoke for brains.” Gray pushed off from the tree he was leaning on. “Ignore him. He can’t do math.”

“Come up here and fight me, ice princess.” Natsu's arms lit a flame. “I can at least count how many hits it will take for me to knock you out!”

Gray placed a palm on the tree Natsu was in, “how about you come down here?” a streak of ice crawled up the tree and frozen the branch Natsu was crouched on, which shattered, and Natsu hit the ground with a thud. The rest of the group grumbled as the two took fighting stances, but Erza cut in first.

“Very kind of you all wait for us.” She grabbed the two boys by an ear and walked into the forest. Both protested in her wake. “Let us continue forward, as the rest will meet us there.”

There were a few laughs from the group as they moved to follow Erza into the woods. Levy fell into step with Lucy.

“So Lu,” Levy started, “what do you think?”

“Of you guys?” Lucy paused to gather her thoughts. “I think you’re all crazy and loud, but at the same time,” Lucy looked at the strange people around her. “I think you’re also a lot of fun when you aren’t burning down buildings.”

Levy beamed. “You could join us. If you want to. We could figure out what you are and introduce you to the rest of the guild.”

“There’s more of you? Oh jeez, I thought you guys were all of it.”

“There’s more guilds too. Lamia Scale, Blue Pegasus, Sabertooth, and that’s not even all of them!”

“Dear stars, what have I gotten myself into.” Lucy placed her face in her hands.

“Adventure, Lu. Endless, unavoidable adventure. That’s where our name comes from. Endless Fairy Tales, just waiting to be told.” Levy laughed. Lucy finally cracked a smile at Levy’s excitement. Maybe all this wasn’t going to be as difficult as Lucy thought it was going to be. Lucy looked at the bracelet on her wrist. Maybe the chance of pace wasn’t so bad.

Erza turned to address the group when they reached the small clearing where the treasury building sat. She let go of Natsu and Gray and held up one finger.

“You all know the drill. We release any Mythals we find, and you can all take one item.” she then turned to face Natsu, “ _ One _ Natsu. That goes for you too Gajeel.” Natsu grumbled, holding a hand over his ear.

“Yeah yeah, Titania. We know.” Gajeel pushed past her through the doors, Natsu and Wendy hot on his tail. The group followed, all heading down the stairs one by one. Lucy sighed. More stairs. The silver key caught her eye again. Tempted to take it, Lucy stared at it, but she shook her head and followed the group to the bottom floor where the glass cages resided.

Gray stepped forwards and stretched his arms out in front of himself. He cracked his knuckles and touched his hands together like Lucy had seen him do before, then removed his coat, leaving his chest bare.

“Let’s get to work.” Gray placed both his hands on the floor. A wave of cold air pulsed out from his hands and ice spread out from his palms and crawled up every glass cage in sight. A soft mist fell from Gray’s arms as frost began to crawl up from his fingers.

There was a flash of light as a sword appeared in each of Erza’s hands from thin air and she drove both into one of the ice-covered glass which cracked and shattered under the force. Gajeel cracked his knuckles- Lucy could have sworn she heard metal squeak- and his skin changed from flesh to solid metal and he went to work driving his fist through as many cages as he could. Natsu burst into flames and followed Erza’s and Gajeel’s lead. Gray walked off and soon another wave of cold blew through the large room.

It didn’t take long for every cage in the bottom floor to be shattered. The occasional, strange creature came bolting towards the stairs in various states of joy and fear; most were slipping on the ice thinly coating the floor. Lucy was shivering from the cold, almost missing Natsu’s unbearable heat. Gray had made his way back to the bottom of the staircase and apologized.

“There’s not much I can do about that in a closed space.” He kept his distance from her, mist was still rolling of his body, small ice shards and frost covered his arms. He rubbed the back of his neck and gave Lucy a small smile. “We weren’t properly introduced. Gray Fullbuster. Resident air conditioner. I would shake your hand, but,” He held up an ice coated hand. “I’m not sure that would help you with the cold.”

Lucy laughed a little, her breath visible in the low temperature. “I’m Lucy Heartfilia. I’m new here, and very confused.”

“You’ll get used to it. I wasn’t introduced to other kinds of magic let alone guilds for most of my life.”

“Oh?” Lucy regarded Juvia’s earlier statement. “Where are you from then?”

Gray shifted a little, before answering. “Far north. The mountains of Iceberg.”

“Iceberg! How did you end up here?” Lucy was tempted to drag as much information from him as possible.

“Long story.” Was all he said on the subject. “I’ve done all I can down here.” Gray reached down to grab the coat he dropped on the floor and pulled something out of his pants pocket and waved it in the air. “Just gotta return something first.”

Gray walked off and called for Natsu, who turned to see who was calling him. Gray wound up and threw the object he was holding as hard as he could. It hit Natsu square in the face.

“Found your other shoe, Dipshit!” Gray turned to Lucy. “That should help with the temperature.” He smiled at Lucy again before booking it up the staircase as a flaming Dregling came running after him, holding his lost sandal in his hand, shouting threats and insults after the Ice Mythal.

It did in fact help with the temperature.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> leave reviews ig?


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